Who pays for it when non-residents of the U.S. come into the country on a program funded by the feds, but one among their number comes down with a disease that’s been practically eradicated here, and the discovery prompts a mass health response?
Why, you do, of course.
And it’s not just limited to expense in Lawrence County, where the disease scare occurred. Taxpayers throughout the state of Illinois, in every county and municipality, contributed toward this boondoggle, because state health department resources were called into play in order to ensure that an outbreak of tuberculosis wasn’t imminent, while a 12-year-old girl remained hospitalized with severe meningitis, brought on buy the tuberculin infection.
Here now is the article in the current print edition (and here at the e-Edition), “‘Migrant workers’ cost taxpayers $$$“:
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LAWRENCE CO.—The practice of specialty farmers bringing in government-subsidized “migrant workers” has cost Lawrence County taxpayers thousands of dollars in the form of testing and screening after a child turned up with tuberculosis and had to be hospitalized.
And if people weren’t already resentful of the migrants coming into the county and causing various problems among locals, they now have about 7,000 more reasons to dislike the situation that Terry Vieck, of JMR Farms, Inc., has brought into the area, because that’s the preliminary report from the Lawrence County Health Department of the cost the migrant workers, brought in from various countries, as regards TB testing and screening.
JMR Farms touts themselves as “Your Snackfood Connection” and operates farms in Lawrence County, Illinois and Knox County, Indiana.
They specialize in generally non-subsidized produce such as sweet corn, potatoes, broccoli, white milling corn, processing vegetables (such as green beans and beets) as well as the very subsidized soybeans.
“Subsidies,” however, are not subjective. The U.S. Government, each year, allows specialty farmers, such as pumpkin farmers in White County, tobacco and melon farmers in Wayne County, tomato and pepper farmers in Gallatin County and apple orchards in Jackson and Johnson counties to bring in “migrant workers” from countries south of the U.S. border—Mexico, Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, etc. There are entire programs that will outfit the specialty farmers with migrants who ostensibly pass screening, both for legal issues such as criminality and health issues such as tuberculosis, to make it into the country on perfectly valid work visas.
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To read the full article, simply click here to get started with your online subscription; or visit our Lawrence County vendors at Jim’s Guns on Highway 250 between Lawrenceville and Bridgeport, or Lou’s Restaurant in Bridgeport, to pick up your copy…but hurry, they’re going fast, and you might have to travel to Maxwell House in Flat Rock, CJ’s Fast Stop in Allendale, or any number of our other awesome vendors, because the new issue is scheduled to be on stands next week!